Since Ted Cruz’ Monday announcement of his candidacy for President of the United States, the MSM has been posed to discredit him or cause him to stumble. His appearance on “CBS This Morning” Tuesday was proof positive.

But the Texas Senator was more than ready for the bombardment when network correspondent Vladimir Duthiers pounced, asking Cruz if he would “take away” the health care of 16 millions of Americans insured under Obamacare if he was elected president

“Well, you know, those numbers don’t tell the whole picture,” Cruz calmly responded. “For one thing, the bulk of those numbers are coming from expanded Medicaid. And Medicaid is a program where a lot of people who are on Medicaid are not getting health care. Medicaid is a system that is already overburdened and more and more people are just getting waiting lists and not actually getting health care.”

Cruz added, “Beyond that, remember six million people had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare. You are not doing someone a favor if you cancel the health insurance they like, and then force them to buy new health insurance at higher premiums that covers less.

The newly declared Republican candidate also noted that Obamacare is the “single largest job killer” in the United States.

And try as they might to elicit a misstep, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King also found him unflappable.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dove into the 2016 Republican presidential pond (video) —- without a teleprompter —- Monday, telling his audience, “It is a time for truth, it is a time for liberty, it is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.”

That’s a winning message right out of the chute.

Not to be eclipsed, others will follow in short order. Campaign fundraising on this level is not for the faint-of-heart and Jeb Bush’s exploratory campaign is already raking in the big bucks from establishment types based on his squishy bipartisan views such as “overhauling immigration” and “income inequality.” Bush, whose wife is Mexican-born, regards illegal immigration as “an act of love.”

Cruz is the conservative contender at this point, though the field will widen. The MSM is already hard at work marginalizing him as integral to the “tea party” it abhors and even questioning his credentials to run since he was born in Canada to an American mother.

But none of them can get to the White House without us —- the Republican base. What are the defining issues that your support hinges on? Here are some —- you may think of others: Economic growth, educational choices, dealing with burgeoning global terror, military readiness, actually securing our porous border, reducing the national debt, instituting a balanced budget, energy independence, healthcare that values patients and doctor interactions, minus federal intrusion?

As Hillary Clinton’s nefarious email saga continues to develop, one line given as her reason for withholding personal communications is shot through with cannon-sized holes by none other than hubby Bill. Hillary’s claim that her private server “contained personal communication between my husband and me,” wasexposed as bogus by the Wall Street Journal, revealing the fact that Bill Clinton still doesn’t use email. In fact, according to the article, he has sent a total of two emails in his entire life, the initial one in 1998. As president, Bill Clinton’s first email was a message to John Glenn, as the former senator and astronaut was making a return trip to space.

And speaking of outer space, Hillary, the presumed Democrat presidential candidate did herself no favors as she took the podium, aloofly playing the role of annoyed, elitist matron, while holding a terse press conference Tuesday. She acknowledged using only a private email account while secretary of state and grandly opined that only she is the determiner of what she releases and what she deletes. “The server will remain private,” she flatly declared —- saying she turned over 55,000 emails —- neglecting to admit that she waited two months to do so and never sufficiently answering questions relating to what was contained in those she deleted.

She also said using a private server while in a high level government post was a matter of “convenience.” The physical server was on her private property. Given that the Benghazi disaster, shrouded in lies, occurred on her watch, the issue becomes: Does her “convenience” trump national security?

While snappishly answering questions, Clinton repeated that she “followed every rule,” and “did not email classified material to anyone.” She further claimed, “For any government employee, it is that government employee’s responsibility to determine what’s personal and what’s work-related” —- knowing full well that’s not the case.

“At the end, I chose not to keep my private personal emails. No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy,” asserted the woman who has long desired to be the ultimate and unquestioned authority.

When even the left-of-center Associated Press has filed a lawsuit in D.C. today to force the State Department to release Hillary’s email correspondence and government documents, all indications point to her grandiose goals looking bleaker. The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled.

The Iowa Ag Summit is a forum on issues facing American farmers featuring national politicians. Watch best excerpts with those currently weighing their chances at grabbing the 2016 presidential nomination. The videos include chats with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and others. Walker showed up in his shirtsleeves — presumably indicating he was ready to get to work —- and Santorum mercifully ditched his ubiquitous Jimmy Carter-like sweater vest.

Take a gander and size them up. Each opportunity to see the candidates in action is revealing. Although there is a brief commercial proceeding each interview, it’s worth the short wait.

Hillary Clinton, bafflingly considered the de facto 2016 Democrat presidential front-runner, is not getting any cover from her former senate colleague Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Feinstein was asked by host Chuck Todd about the mounting and increasingly harmful reports of Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. Though Feinstein started off saying the “situation isn’t clear,” she soon advised Clinton to “Step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is.”

FEINSTEIN: “Well actually, what I would like is for her to come forward and say just what the situation is. Because she is the preeminent political figure right now. She is the leading candidate, whether it be Republican or Democrat, for the next president, to be the next president. And I think that she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is. You know, some people say, “Well, she had a server in her…”

TODD: “You think this silence is hurting her.”

FEINSTEIN: “I think that from this point on the silence is going to hurt her.”

Appearing on the same program, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went further, saying that neither Clinton nor the State Department should be taken at their word.

“Did she communicate on behalf of The Clinton Foundation as Secretary of State? Did she call the terrorist attack in Benghazi a terrorist attack in real time?” Graham asked. “I want to know. And the one thing I’ll never agree to is let the State Department tell us what e-mails we should receive, or let her and her team tell us. Some independent group should do that.”

Graham, an obedient McCain toady is now making noises about his own presidential run. Be assured he would never have come out against Hillary if McCain was still referring to her as an “inspiration” and “a rock star.”

Last October, we posted “Two timing McCain jilts Hillary,” which included this quote from the Arizona Republic: “If U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham decides to run for president in 2016, he can count on the whole-hearted support of the 2008 Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain, his longtime ally on national security, immigration reform and other matters.”

The previous August, vacillating RINO McCain, called Hillary Clinton a “rock star” and said he might support her in 2016.

In the final analysis, Graham got it right on this issue. Hillary Clinton should be under intense scrutiny for her abysmal mishandling of Benghazi, where four Americans attached to the U.S. embassy in Libya, including the U.S. Ambassador, lost their lives. Watch this video as Sen. Rand Paul skillfully eviscerates her during a senate hearing. In contrast, her email trickery is more of the same deception Americans have come to expect from the Clinton’s.

The amnesty and Common Core supporter stands by his scheme to give drivers’ licenses to illegals. When he was governor of Florida, Bush also pushed for in-state tuition for children of illegal aliens. Few can forget when he referred to illegal immigration as “an act of love.”(video)

The Washington Times reported that conservatives who resent the GOP establishment foisting yet another squish Republican into prominence were organizing a protest of Jeb’s conference speech. In anticipation of such an embarrassing walkout, Slatereported Bush’s team resorted to importing supporters from downtown Washington, D.C. Chartered buses were scheduled to depart from K Street, the heart of the lobbying industry.

As the brother and son of the last two Republican presidents, Jeb Bush appears to think the presidency is now his due. He’s obviously spent too much time listening to RINO strategist Karl Rove. Conservatives have been down this GOP Establishment path previously with mediocre or unrepresentative of the grassroots candidates —- Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

This time winning is more important than ever. In fact, it may well be crucial to our very survival. After two terms of Barack Obama and with Hillary Clinton looking likely to snag the Democrat nomination, there is no room for Republican blunders such as Jeb Bush.

The Sunday news programs parade a panoply of potential GOP presidential candidates, giving each their obligatory sound bites followed by analysis by the panelists gauging their viability. Each in turn is weighed as to suitability to run against the already anointed Democrat—- a problem-plagued, Cher-like candidate known far and wide by a single name.

Although the list of potential Republican candidates is long, the party establishment powerbrokers, strategists and the eager media, appear to have already selected their donor-amassing candidate. But for multitudes of “Bush weary” conservatives, Jeb Bush is a dynasty too far.

Phyllis Schlafly, still going strong at age 90, has long argued that the American conservative movement’s purpose is to influence, not echo, the Republican Party. In this column in the Washington Times, she warns against letting the party’s “kingmakers,” the Wall Street elite and their acquiescing political consultant class coronate former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Mincing no words, Mrs. Schlafly makes her case in a 2015 update to her landmark book a half-century ago titled “A Choice, Not an Echo,” which in 1964 became the motto of Barry Goldwater’s grassroots movement.

In her update, Mrs. Schlafly -— founder of the Eagle Forum —- argues that her party too often picks losers as candidates because of a stranglehold by the political consultant-big business-Wall Street crowd, which makes a bundle from championing moderates over conservatives.

She warns that may be happening again in 2016 in the persona of Jeb Bush, noting “closed-door events have been held for Republican mega-donors to select who will get the big money that went last time to Mitt Romney,” and that the mainstream media already are cheering on Jeb Bush. Read the complete article by Ralph Z. Hallow here

Then carve out the time to acquaint yourself with Mexico-born Columba Bush, Jeb’s wife. The revealing article, “Bush Spouse Backs Jeb, but Is Wary of Family Business,” in the New York Times is written by Patrick Healy and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. It’s easy to see why it took a trio, including researcher Kitty Bennett, to compile this informative piece.

Today we ask our readers to share who your “2016 Dream Ticket’ would be —- and why? We can do better than what’s being shoved our way by the Karl Rove elites.